I Am Here

Tonight, God ever so simply reminded me that He is here....

I had a rough night at work. There was a long line of hungry, impatient customers, I was feeling tired and sluggish from the heat, so I wasn't moving as quickly, and then their unhappy faces and remarks made me unhappy and it all kept piling on. Gradually, it all became too much for me to handle, and I got very stressed out. Then I had to hold back tears. Then I had to force myself to keep going instead of leaving the rest of my team to run the line by themselves and escaping to the bathroom to cry.

In weak moments, sometimes I forget to remember that God is there to pull me through. And sometimes I know He's there, but I doubt that He'll help me because He feels so far away. As I was struggling to hold on, I suddenly had the urge to pray: "God help me." 

...No, there was no flash of light and wave of peace and happiness. The line of people kept growing longer, I was still stressed as ever and the tears were about to start rolling faster than I was rolling burritos....

But then my manager saw me, saw that I was struggling, and told me to take a break. She pulled me into the office and gave me the chance to breathe, to cry if I wanted, to talk about anything that was on my mind, and she reassured me that I was doing a good job. I calmed down, we talked, and I was struck by the kindness she and the rest of my team showed to me in my moment of weakness. My co-workers that I've barely known for 3 weeks took the time to build me back up. They thought I was worth it. They needed my smile back.

I got a bit of food and sat down, pulled out my phone and opened the text from my best friend in response to the angry text I sent him earlier about my work day. He told me that he just spent the last hour at Adoration praying for me....

Boom. There was my blinking, neon sign from God saying "HELLO! I'M HERE!". He loved me so much, that He sent my best friend in the whole world to pray for me for an hour, not even knowing that I was having the work day from hell. If that wasn't enough to get me back on my feet, my friend continued to build me back up with his love and reminders that he and God believe in me, and I can do it. Such a simple example of the pure love that Christ has for each of us... I'm amazed. 

It's been an hour or so since I got off work, and thanks to my other half and the Big Man upstairs, I'm ending tonight on a fantastic note.

God bless, and good night :)